The mobile phone is increasingly more important as an information and content access device. Currently there may be twice as many mobile communication devices as personal computers. Mobile operators are increasingly looking to high value data services as a way to overcome the continuing decline in average per user voice revenue. Billions of dollars are being spent globally on wireless licenses with billions more in investments in the pipeline for development of infrastructure and services by wireless service and content providers. Carriers may be introducing new data, content and multimedia services as a means of generating new revenue streams, reversing negative ARPU trends, retaining and attracting customers as well as increasing returns on investment, and extending and differentiating their service offering to consumers. The emergence of these wireless technologies create unique opportunities for wireless carriers, advertisers and publishers to generate additional revenue streams through new and existing customers. As consumer adoption of wireless technology continues to increase, marketing via mobile devices becomes an important part of all integrated data communications strategies.
However, usage patterns for mobile search and Web search may differ, as well as the expectations of the users and the advertisers. Combined with a completely different user experience, these may change the value of clicks and lead opportunities. Current mobile devices may have limited browser capabilities that do not support the rich feature set of the Web. Handset capabilities may impact the search behavior of mobile users, where the limitations of numeric-pad keyed entry narrow the searched for terms. The small screen size on mobile devices may have an impact on the performance of the search implementations. The size of screens on mobile handsets may limit the output that may be displayed per listing, and the number of listings per screen. The absence of a mouse or joystick increases the time necessary for a mobile user to browse a webpage and click on links. Network broadcast speeds and bandwidths may limit the amount of data that a user receives at a time. Additionally, mobile users travel with their mobile devices and may need to obtain information much quicker than Web users. Current online marketing systems may not account for differences between mobile handsets and computers.